Crisis Communication Assignment

I selected Oscar’s Pizza and Sports Grille to analyze their crisis communication.

I reviewed Oscar’s website, Facebook page and Instagram account.

Oscar’s posted a general statement to their customers which appears on their Facebook page. The letter states the precautions they’re taking with staff and cleanliness along with their willingness to put customer and employee safety first. They post photos of daily specials still. The specials have been altered to make it even cheaper to order take-out at Oscar’s. All messages are typed out and accompanied by photos. The owner does leave daily announcements on the accounts to remind people about opening and closing times, since they tend to change frequently under these circumstances. Oscar’s has been closing earlier almost every week and notifies customers via Facebook.

Some of the Instagram and Facebook posts would receive feedback from followers. Most of the responses were serious questions just regarding specials or take-out options. People would tag friends and family under their food special photos, which increased traffic on posts significantly. Besides their company statement, most posts did not mention the pandemic, but were rather light-hearted photos and captions about food.

I think Oscar’s has done a great job at constantly updating their social media channels on up-to-date information regarding closing times and their COVID-19 precautions. However, their website is not nearly as informational. I did not find one thing about the pandemic and their response on the website. Oscar’s should utilize a banner or pop-up of some type to inform potential customers on their procedures. It did not even say they were “pick-up” only. Oscar’s could surely improve their crisis response to the pandemic.